If an incident with an active shooter occurs at California Baptist University, an emergency plan is established and is made available online for the CBU community.
On Oct. 1, a mass shooter killed nine people, including students and a professor, at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, before turning the gun on himself.
With the news of the shooting, some students at CBU may be curious of procedures that would be implemented in the event of a shooter on campus.
CBU has an emergency manual that can be found in InsideCBU under the Public Safety tab. It states that if a person with a gun is seen on campus or gunshots are heard, the person witnessing the incident or receiving information about the incident should first notify the police immediately by calling 911 and notify the Department of Public Safety immediately by calling 951-343-4311.
The manual advises to refrain from approaching the person and, if gunshots are heard, to take cover immediately.
The Department of Public Safety will take necessary action in the event of an active shooter, by including notifying the proper personnel, safely directing people away from the area of the incident and attempt to determine the location of the armed person to relay information to the police officers.
CBU has in place an emergency management team to assist the Department of Public Safety. For more information about CBU protocols including lockdown procedures, students can read the CBU Emergency Manual on InsideCBU.
Jim Walters, director of the Department of Public Safety, said, statistically, students and faculty are safer in a school or university environment than most places in America.
Walters said the CBU community should still always be aware of their surroundings.
“If you even suspect that you have information about something like that that could happen, might happen, or is going to happen, it needs to be reported,” Walters said. “(We) take that information and move forward in a manner that allows things to be prevented, if possible, or minimized.”
CBU has a prevention team called the Care Team, which is made up of representatives from the Department of Public Safety, the Counseling Center, Residence Life, the Athletics Department and other academic departments.
The Care Team meets every other week, or more often as necessary to have a discussion about any students who may be going through a personal crisis or trauma, have experienced behavior that has changed dramatically or may exhibit anti-social behaviors.
“We bring those students up in a collaborative environment that allows us to evaluate if action needs to be taken,” Walters said. “If someone needs to step alongside them, support them to help them get through a personal crisis or determine if this student is actually having some psychological or social problems, we can help.”
Walters encourages students to let the Department of Public Safety know if there are concerns about an individual.
“It’s not like you’re tattling,” Walters said. “It’s for the well-being of you, your friends, for the university and even the person that is involved. It’s important that we tell people.”
With the tragedy of each school shooting, Walters said the department considers each past school shooting and evaluates if there are any weaknesses in the emergency plan at CBU, or if there is a strategy that should be implemented.
